I'm cooking in a tourist town where the place only employs 2 cooks year round. They are in tourist destination and the AC is broken until the end of the month. 1 cook per shift, 10 hour shifts, 7 days a week, avg. 200 people a day. I finally broke and told boss 1 person should not be in charge of an 80-person seating area with a 2-page menu when they are all seated at once, cooking everything from ribs to 4-pieces. And being paid 22/hr is not what kitchen managers should be paid, and should be as close to 30 an hour as you can make it, considering we are doing the work of two cooks. I got the middle finger for suggesting it.
by Queasy_Safe_5266
40 Comments
No, good for you!! I’m FOH but they’re doing something super similar where I am and it’s ruining the BOH here. We all left recently. Last straw broke. You have to stick up for yourself
I understand your frustration but whats with the pic?
Also quit when you get a new job.
Fuck that boss…
Take a break.
I left for 5 years.
Randomly interviewed for a position with an actual job title and benefits in an institutional corporate kitchen.
Take a break.
Unfortunately for us, there’s plenty of lower stress jobs out there that pay about the same. We just enjoy the abuse.
I think you’re gonna be in less of a bind than that business if you leave
I put in 21 years, and one day I was standing there and I just knew I couldn’t do it anymore.
I fix industrial robots now and I make more than twice what I used to.
Just something to think about
I would say the same. That is not sustainable.
Quit!
Taking time off is an idea. They need to train someone else who probably won’t be able to handle it.
Man. We are 50 seats and we have 4 FOH and 4 BOH lol
Can you move to a “regular town” (not a “tourist town”) cuz doing that did wonders for me.
BTW it was barely a 35 mile difference. And a state line but who’s counting.
Best of luck and I’m pulling for you. 👍
That looks like the face of someone who’s very much over it. You deserve better, that sounds like a place run by someone who doesn’t care about their staff or their customers.
Quit but don’t forget the skills you honed by handling insane conditions
Joshua Weissman really let himself go. Stay strong.
OP that is a ‘I’m just done’ face for sure. Good for you. That sounds fucken insane. Fuck that, fuck them, and move on to somewhere that appreciates hard work.
Just landed an interview for a 30/hr+ position and I’m seriously panicking. I told myself I’d never go back, and I should heed my instincts. But Lord I need the money…
Sounds like management needs to get a hairnet on and do some cooking otherwise id make the food take even longer
Yall hirin?
30/hr? Dude you dont’ wanna know how much they are probably making if this is how few people they have on staff :/
walk away from that shit. with two outstretched middle fingers.
This is a big mood. Hang in there man. Know your worth.
Show them that $22 dollar an hour work ethic.
Every single shop in the US is pulling this shit now. One person doing the job of three for the pay of one.
Ribs take a long time to cook and plate. Show them.
I started out in restaurants years ago. Working the line with just myself and another cook. My advice is to do what I did, get out and get into corporate food service. Working on college campuses. Plenty of cooks in the kitchen, prep cooks, salad department, summers off…if you want it. All the holiday breaks, 4 weeks paid vacation, sick hours-days.
Aramark, Chartwells, Sodexo, AVI. I don’t know how it is in the restaurant you work but every restaurant I cooked in the owners were cheap as hell. It’s just my advice, but get out now before they kill your desire to cook at all.
Good. Fuck em…
Quiet quit until you find a better opportunity. I’m seeing a lot of suggestions for corporate or institutional kitchens. I went to a catering spot that was a pretty good deal. A little less than I could get for line work, but it was ridiculously easy. Big batch cooking for orders that get cut off at 4 pm the previous night. Orders with minimum quantities. The biggest issue for me was to slow down my pace. I was knocking out the work on a normally two person station in less than 8 hours most days. Some days had enough to legit make me work a little OT, but it was like 3 or 4 days in 3 months.
The other issue is that, if you’re as good as you’re representing yourself as… you’ll be surrounded by people with way less skill and drive. People will not properly call out. They will shortcut recipes. They won’t wash their hands enough to make you feel comfortable. You might get funny looks for wearing a proper chef coat.
There might be some much better, more professional, catering gigs in your area. Check them out. Even the less professional ones are worth a look in my opinion.
Take care of yourself homie
The sad reality of having bad management is that working as hard as possible is only rewarded with more work and terrible working conditions.
Be flexible. I quit after 19 years and switched to construction with no experience in the field. Skills you have are more transferable than you might think. Being competent and hardworking go a long way in most jobs, along with the ability to accept training. I also have time to garden and do blacksmith work now. It could be the shift you need to live a happier life. I hope things go well
30 an hour!!! 😮
Whoever needs to hear this. I’m a lifelong chef, been in so many situations like this. Pretty much every kitchen, no matter how harmonious it is, turns toxic eventually. I thought there’s no escape to me doing something else, my entire resume is cooking.
A couple years ago, I buckled down and got my CDL after hearing guys were making crazy money, and that industry was hurting for people. Didn’t even take that long/wasn’t that expensive, and I’m in Massachusetts which is notoriously the toughest state to get it in. Some states it’s a joke, like a couple grand and a couple weeks. Driving alone all day with nobody breathing down your neck, back home every afternoon and weekends off is a dream I could never imagine (oh yea, and making almost triple what I made in kitchens)
Just started a job at a linen delivery company where having experience in kitchens actually helped get me the job. I pop into dozens of kitchens a day, seeing people in the weeds, but then I can just drop my stuff off and leave lol.
There’s options out there, cooking is a toxic relationship that makes us eventually believe we can’t do anything else. There are trades that are (relatively) easy to break into, and you quickly learn nobody else has the tenacity and work ethic we do. Every other industry wants an employee like us
I would try to line something up and make an exit immediately. It’s not going to get better. They are making money hand over fist running less than a skeleton crew and absolutely screwing you. I don’t know you at all but you deserve better than this. No one deserves to get ground down like that day after day. Physical and more importantly mental burnout takes a while to recover from! I’m rooting for you OP. Don’t sell yourself short!
I’m not an expert in anything, but I can pretty much guarantee you’ll never look back on your life and wish you would have spent more time getting taken advantage of at this place.
We’ve all been here – time to move on.
Nope
Dude, a KM at a place like that in the Midwest makes closer to 70k a year.
Even a low paying KM job is closer to 60k a year.
You’re right. The smarter move would’ve been to get with the only other cook and coordinate both calling off until you get better pay
Quit yesterday
Yeah, you can easily change all of that. Talk to the only other employees there, and convince them to walk off the job unless the owners agree to better pay and better working conditions… they’re making thousands upon thousands of dollars, and they’re barely tossing you chump change for your hard work.
There is no restaurant if there are no employees to work in it. You should all sit outside the front door of the restaurant until they agree to things you want. It would be well within their interest to quickly resolve this, or they will be losing out on a lot of revenue because they’ll be unable to run the restaurant alone.
Just let the place fall apart for a day or two, 86 items, run long checks, etc.. sometimes the owners see the place operating and just say oh well they make it work, we don’t need anyone else. It’s not your business, let them feel that.
Bunch of tables complaining to the management that they’ve been waiting an hour for the food? Bad reviews online etc, then when they come at you screaming why it’s taking so long, you hold up your two hands and say, I’m one person with two hands, I’m doing the best I can. Let that sink in.
Switch to a golf course lol but kinda serious
Quit mid shift 😈
Wait till it’s extremely busy and the staff is minimal.